The Beatrice to his Benedick
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: Mr Knightly struggles to prove he can be romantic and uses a quote from Much Ado About Nothing to make a point to Emma.


"Mr Elton is writing a riddle for your project? If you can ask him, why did you not ask me?"

"Well, you are not the romantic sort of person, Mr Knightly. I thought you would laugh at the very idea."

Not the romantic sort of person? He may not find the need to use limericks and rhyming couplets every time he spoke to a lady but that did not mean he could not be a romantic. He took Emma's dismissal of asking him as a challenge and spent the following afternoon attempting to write something for Emma's collection and proving her wrong.

It was turning out to be a very difficult task.

He could not write anything that sounded right. He started by addressing the lady in question and it did not work. He could not write a word. He tried again by describing her beauty and immediately screwed the paper up when he realised he was comparing Emma's eyes to the colour of the sky.

All he wanted was something that sounded like him but showed there was a romantic side to him. But he could not understand how comparing to a summer's day was telling a woman just how much he loved her.

Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was a genius. More than a genius but one of Emma's favourites, oh she loved her Wordsworth and all these recent poets that appear out of nowhere but none of them compared to Shakespeare. She kept a battered copy of his sonnets by a bedside table, Mr Knightly knew this because he had given her that copy on her tenth birthday and she never stopped reading it.

In one of Shakespeare's plays...

Hastily Mr Knightly made his way to the library and hunted down what he was looking for. When he found the right book and the right page he sat back down smugly as he copied the quote out in his neat handwriting.

This will definitely show Emma.

EWEWEWEWEWEWEWEW

"I have brought you a quote to add to your collection," he said over tea the following day, he pulled out the neatly folded paper and passed it to her. "It's Shakespeare."

"Shakespeare!" Emma cried out gleefully as she hurriedly unfolded it. "Oh I love Shakespeare!" she read the quote and Mr Knightly was amused to see her frown. "This is not Shakespeare!" she declared.

"It is from one of his plays, a comedy," Mr Knightly said.

"A comedy! You dare give me a quote from a _comedy_ for my _romantic _riddles scrapbook?"

"Let me read it to you," Mr Knightly said taking the paper out of Emma's hand, he cleared his throat and began to read, "_I mean in singing. But in loving – Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of these quondam carpet-mongers whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse – why they were never truly turned over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme. I have tried. I can find out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby' – a innocent rhyme for 'scorn' 'horn' – a hard rhyme; for 'school' 'fool' – a babbling rhyme. Very ominous endings. No I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms._"

"See! How is that supposed to be romantic? He is mocking the very idea of romantic poetry!" Emma said. "I refuse to believe that Shakespeare would write such a thing."

"My dear Emma," Mr Knightly said laughing, "Shakespeare is making a very valid point while also making fun of himself. Surely you make jokes about yourself from time to time."

"I am not a literature genius," Emma sniffed.

"Emma, the man is clearly saying that there is no point in all of these sonnets and poetic declarations of love. He is making a powerful statement that real love, true love, does not need to be spoken of."

"How could you say such a thing? Love needs to be said! If you do not tell someone that you love them, then how could they know you do? If you do not make someone feel in love then how can they be sure it's there? You would make a dreadful lover Mr Knightly, the poor lady of your affections would never know if you were in love with her!"

"One day, Emma, you will fall in love with someone and you will realise that you never need to hear him recite these sonnets and rhymes because you will know for certain that he loves you and would only ever love you." he stood up and put his hat on. "I must take my leave but please do remember what I say Emma, you will learn that I am right."

As he crosses the gardens towards the field he could hear Emma shout after him, "YOU ALWAYS SAY THAT BUT YOU ARE NEVER RIGHT!" he could not help but laugh merrily as he strolled onto the field.

There will be a day when Emma will never need to question his affections to her. she is truly the Beatrice to his Benedick.


End file.
